Joining polyester batting

This is the method I use.  Others may do it differently.

I but the edges to be joined together, and start at the left end of the join.  I use a ve-e-r-y long double thread in a longer hand sewing needle.  A "darner" works well.  Using a Herring bone stitch, I take a stitch on one side of the butted together edges, and then on the other side.  I have a picture of my actual work, using a white thread with the white batting.  This is on 11oz polyester batting, but the techniques works on just about any weight.

I case the picture isn't clear, I did a little sampler using black thread.

On the reverse almost nothing can be seen.  This is the side I would put against the top of the quilt.

Finishing the hexie quilt

I've been asked if I could turn my finishing of the hexie quilt into a tutorial, for those of my students who follow this blog.  This is the first installment.

Before starting, you need to make a decision about whether or not to remove your basting stitches. I decided to leave them in except on the two edges of the quilt that needed further manipulation to create a seam allowance.  I also removed all of the papers I had used in making the quilt.

The first step is to finish the edges of the piece so as to create a minimum 1/4" seam allowance.  The edges are not all the same.  Two opposite sides will match, and the other two opposite sides will match each other, as well.

I set myself up on an ironing surface, -- my wide ironing board.  I added a good light source, and used my little Clover iron, as it is much easier to manipulate around the little corners.

Two of your sides might not need any further work, if you, while you were joining the hexies, you extended your stitches along the seam allowance about 1/4".

The other edges will appear somewhat ragged.  The folded bits will need to be straightened out and thoroughly pressed. You may find that your hand stitching has accidentally caught some of the seam allowance.  Some times just a gentle tug will loosen it without the stitching being torn out, and sometimes you may have to remove a little bit of the stitching and re-stitch the joining.  In pressing the edges straight, I used just a quick spritz of Best Press, but a quick spritz of water would probably work just as well.

After the edges are all straightened, give the over all quilt a quick press as well.

Next you need to cut your batting,and backing to size. I don't have a really good table to do this on.  Depending on the size of the quilt, a double bed might work just fine.  First I spread my batting on the table, lining one side up with one edge of the table.  Then I placed the pressed quilt top on top of the batting, allowing at least 2" of batting beyond the edge of the quilt.  

Then I carefully cut off the excess batting, maintaining that 2" extra on all sides of the quilt.  

I try to keep the excess batting in as large pieces as possible, as I can later machine stitch them together for another project.  But this will only work with a flatter cotton type batting.  The more common polyester batting has to be stitched together by hand using a large herringbone stitch.  More on that later.

Waiting

The orange twisted cord mentioned in my last post has inspired the design for a new reliquary, but the core perle cotton was quite limited, so I've had to order more through the local embroidery store.  This will be awhile coming in, so in the meantime, I've been working on a couple of more traditional pieces.

The first one is a very traditional quilt that I started as a teaching piece when I was involved with a basic quilting group at the local seniors' centre.  It's a pattern that I found on the internet, and I have no idea to who to credit with the design.  I found it in a box with all of the pieces cut and some scribbled instructions telling me that there were 16 squares.  Okay, I thought, just about the right size for a charity quilt, and got to work.  However by the time it was finished, I had 24 squares, and a quilt big enough to cover our twin size spare bed.  There is no way I can quilt this in my very limited work area, so I'm going to have to find a long armer that I trust, as the one I've used for years has retired.  Sorry, but for some reason the picture is sideways. The quilt is 86" by 58 1/2", but, unfortunately, not quite square.  I don't think I'm going to worry about that.

The second one is one that I've mentioned before.  After over a year of work, I've finally got my hand pieced hexie quilt to the size I want.  there are still a couple of fill-ins needed for the edge but the bulk of it is done.  I'm glad to see the end of it, but now the question will be whether I can mange to quilt this in my work space.  It's a little larger than any I've done before, but I'm thinking of entering it in a judged show, so would prefer that it all be my own work.  It's about 48 by 65 inches, a nice lap quilt size, but big enough for the category I'm looking at.

 I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network.

Practising

Today, between more demanding projects, I have been practicing making wrapped cords, with FMQ'g.  Recently I purchased the book "Stitch and Structure", by Jean Draper.  It was not what I had expected, but was absolutely a "good" purchase, as it was full of inspiration, mostly in directions I had never considered for my work. 

While I would like to experiment with some of the techniques in the book, I knew that I needed to brush up on some basic skills first.  At the same time I had been "culling" the huge amount of perle cotton in my stash, and saw an opportunity to use some of the excess in producing wrapped cord.

So I spent most of the day at my machine.  The base of the wrapped cord is several strands of the perle cotton, the number of strands, and size of the perle cotton determining the actual size of the finished cord.  I experimented with size #5 in both 8 and 12 strands of thread, and #3 in 8 thread strands.  All the threads had to be twisted as they went through the machine-tricky!  I used a free motion zig-zag, with the free motion zig-zag foot that came with the machine.

The machine was threaded with various threads, but for each cord the top and bottom thread was the same.  I used various types of thread, including an entirely mysterious shiny white polyester, Superior Threads Fantasico  #5002, # 5024, # 5027 ( My favoutite thread for any number of different projects--love it!), Fantastico # 5009, and a Coats and Clark variegated  40wt. rayon, machine embroidery thread.

The trick with this technique is to pull the twisted threads through the machine with a smooth and steady pace.  This is easier said than done, and the skill I spent the day practicing.  

Normally, I use a push button start and stop, but this technique is definitely one that requires a foot pedal.

I ended up with several cords, in different sizes.  My favourite is the red/orange/purple one, worked over a #3 burnt orange perle, with the Fantasico #5027.

I plan to link this with Nina-Marie Sayre's "Off the Wall Friday".

Pictures

I didn't have pictures for my last post, but took a couple this morning.  First the Christmas stockings.  Each is about 20" long and 9" wide, at the top. I admit that I was thinking more of boys than women, when making them, and, as mentioned in the last post, having no Christmas fabric in my stash complicated the whole thing. 

This one is not quite finished, and yes, those are hand basted hexies, machine sewn to batting.  I hope to find some sort of plaid or checkerboard blue-ish ribbon to add a bow in the cuff.  The original pattern seemed to call for a loose cuff, but I decided that, technically, it just wasn't feasible--for me.

This one is a very nice slightly off-white cotton twill, and a LWI-dyed blue cotton.  I was experimenting with some programmed machine stitches for the embroidered band.  I added snow flakes to each blue square, in a effort to make it a little more Christmass-y.

Then, again in the previous post, I spoke of finding some ufo's that could, maybe, work as mandalas.  Here is the first one, a Shibori dyed piece that would finish to about 14" in diameter.  Not sure about this one, but it might be fun to play with.

These two were originally planned as mandalas, but the painted image was thought to be too faint to work successfully. Having now finished 6 mandalas, and received some very positive feedback on both the concept and the result, I want to take another look at them.  The actual image can be seen but is not a consistent image across the whole piece.  My plan is to photocopy the original ceiling medallion they were created with, and trace the actual image onto the piece, using my jerry-rigged light box, and then quilt it with mono-poly, creating almost a ghost image, which would then be beaded and finished.

All together this is starting to sound like a week or more of experimentation, and creative fun.

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network

Priorities

The last week was spent making Christmas stockings to be filled, and  given to residents of a woman's shelter and, and any children involved.  There is no Christmas fabric in my stash, and I don't like to have to purchase anything for my charity work, so they have turned out red and purple, blue and while, and scrappy blue. ( The charity work is definitely aimed at stash reduction) The pattern we had been given, without instructions, was a technical challenge, but I figured if it had been super important that they be made in a specific way, we would have been told, so I did the best I could.  But each still took about 6 hours of steady work, with the last one being finished last evening.  Sorry no picture.

Lately, it seems like I've been working my heart out, in the studio, with little to show for it.  The mandalas are now all finished, backed, and labelled.  Two are being saved for the gallery show in November, and the other four are committed to a boutique sale during the quilt show in April.  So much of my time over the last year has been devoted to that November gallery show, that now that I'm ready, I felt the need to develop a concrete plan for my studio work over the next while.  I now have a list, of about 11 potential projects.  Then, today, while giving some thought to those future projects, I found three more pieces that will make up very nicely into beaded mandalas, so they go on my list, since I have a least one potential outlet for them.

I have also wanted to make another reliquary, even to the point of assembling the fabric, braid, thread, and beads for three of them.  So today I took a look at this stock pile, and selected one colour-way to pursue. The reliquaries feed my creative soul, and I usually try to make about one per year.  I say "try", but maybe the word should be "need"?

But the priority for the immediate future is some actual dress-making, something I haven't done in years.